VI. A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF A PARENT MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM FOR INCARCERATED PARENTS: PROXIMAL IMPACTS

More than 680,000 parents of minor children are incarcerated in state prisons, accounting for 85% of all imprisoned parents in the United States (Maruschak, Glaze, &Mumola, 2010). These fathers andmothers are parents to 1.36 million children (West & Sabol, 2008). Prior to prison, almost half of incarcerated parents lived with at least one of their children, andmore than half were the family’s primary financial supporter. When their parents are behind bars, most children live with either another parent, or a close relative of the incarcerated parent, such as a grandmother, who may be the same parent who raised the incarcerated individual. About three-quarters of incarcerated parents report having had at least some contact with their children during their sentence, with up to 50% having weekly contact. Given these statistics, it is clear that many children of prisoners are living in situations that are directly impacted by the absence of a parent. Often these situations are quite challenging, and the present circumstances may be a continuation and expansion of difficulties that were present prior to incarceration (Travis & Waul, 2003). Considering this context, it is not surprising that children of incarcerated parents have often been perceived to be at heightened risk for problems. Initially such concerns emerged from case studies and anecdotal reports, but over the past few decades, a variety of cross-sectional studies of incarcerated parents have found seemingly high rates of problems in their children (e.g., Baunach, 1985; Hunter, 1984; Myers et al., 1999). More recently, findings from longitudinal studies have become available (see Murray, 2010), and a meta-analysis found that the children of incarcerated parents were twice as likely as their peers to exhibit antisocial behavior problems, such as